http://www.xs4all.nl/~pcparts/Eid/dome_of_rock.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~pcparts/Eid/Tomb.jpg
This is the oldest Muslim building which has survived basically intact in its original form. It was built by the Caliph Abd al-Malik and completed in 691 CE. The building encloses a huge rock located at its center, from which, according to tradition, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) ascended to heaven at the end of his Night Journey. The Caliph Omar is said to have cleared the waste which had accumulated on the rock during the Byzantine period. The structure is octagonal and the dome is borne by a double system of pillars and columns. The walls, ceiling, arches, and vaults are decorated with floral images. The dome, on the inside, is covered with colored and gilded stucco. Abd al-Malik marked the end of the construction with a dedicatory inscription (still visible) which reads: “This dome was built by the servant of God Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwan, emir of the faithful, in the year seventy-two” (Hejira 72 in the Muslim calendar is691/692 CE). Under the Abassid ruler, Caliph al-Mamun (r. 813-833), repairs were carried out, and the caliph also seized the occasion to replace the tiles bearing al-Malik’s name with others bearing his own name as the building’s founder. However, since he failed to replace the tiles bearing the original date, the ruse was easily discovered.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~pcparts/Eid/Al%20aqsa.jpg
Built by the Caliph al-Walid (r. 705-715), of the Umayyad dynasty, El-Aksa is one of the largest and most important mosques in the Muslim world, and the earliest in Palestine.
Its construction was probably the architectural expression of the destination of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Night Journey and of the place where his ascension to heaven occurred. The mosque was beautiful and vast twice the size of today’s structure. The original mosque was destroyed in an earthquake in the middle of the eighth century and restored by the Abassids toward the end of that century. Other than a few pieces of wood bearing carvings of floral images, nothing remains of the decorations of the original mosque. Most of those in today’s mosque date from medieval times.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~pcparts/Eid/al_aqsa_The_Ommayyad.jpg
The archaeological excavations below the Temple Mount revealed the vestiges of five palaces, probably built by Jerusalem’s Umayyad rulers. The area of each palace was 1.25 to 1.75 acres and each had a similar plan: a central courtyard with stoas around it, a passage to the stoas, and elongated rooms with pillars and arches to support the ceiling. Some of the buildings had two stories. One of them, apparently the palace of the Umayyad ruler, was attached to the wall of El-Aksa Mosque and contained a direct passage into it. Also discovered was a magnificent bath house and a water-carrying system.